DAM and GvsMegalon from Media Blasters (v.2)

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Oh, I agree with you 100% on overdone DNR, bananaoil. That's the worst trend to happen to home media since the days of the default pan-and-scan standard.

Why go through all the trouble of giving us a huge increase in res, and then blurring the living shit out of it!? Is the average consumer actually so stupid that they find watching a film that looks to have been smeared with Vaseline preferable to seeing some natural film grain? If they are, it's probably due more to naivete than anything else. They just don't understand what they're trading for that "uniform" look.

Also, I'm pretty pissed to hear about the Forbidden Planet blu-ray. It's one of my favorite films, and I was planning to pick it up in the near future. If it really looks more washed out than the DVD, I guess I'll just keep watching that. God, if ever a film deserved to have every possible detail preserved onscreen, it's that one.

[goji1986]

Oh, I agree with you 100% on overdone DNR, bananaoil. That's the worst trend to happen to home media since the days of the default pan-and-scan standard.

Why go through all the trouble of giving us a huge increase in res, and then blurring the living shit out of it!? Is the average consumer actually so stupid that they find watching a film that looks to have been smeared with Vaseline preferable to seeing some natural film grain? If they are, it's probably due more to naivete than anything else. They just don't understand what they're trading for that "uniform" look.

Also, I'm pretty pissed to hear about the Forbidden Planet blu-ray. It's one of my favorite films, and I was planning to pick it up in the near future. If it really looks more washed out than the DVD, I guess I'll just keep watching that. God, if ever a film deserved to have every possible detail preserved onscreen, it's that one.

A great transfer that doesn't have DNR is the recent Monty Python and the Holy Grail Blu. It looks surprisingly stunning!

[Emperor5353]

A great transfer that doesn't have DNR is the recent Monty Python and the Holy Grail Blu. It looks surprisingly stunning!

Thanks for that update...I have been on the fence regarding that particular bd....I shouldn't be surprised because Life of Brian looks amazing as well

Without totally derailing this thread, you all need to see the bd of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...that should be required viewing....easily the best looking blu I own

[Tohosaurus]

I wonder what's going to happen with DAM. Some of us were lucky and snagged a copy but I assume with the issues Toho had there is a pretty limited amount of supplies left to purchase new.

[o.supreme]

OT- Forgive my ignorance, but may I ask what you are referring to when you speak of "DNR", I always associated it with "Digital Noise Removal" (Audio), but you seem to be speaking of video aspects, all assistance is appreciated.

Also this is the first I have heard that there seems to be some differing of opinion regarding the "look" of films in Hi-def. I thought the whole point was to have every film, no matter how old, look like it was filmed "today" (the "camcorder" or "before a live studio" look etc...) But I do understand everyone has their own preferrences. I guess that is why HDTV's have different settings for Movies, Sports, TV, Video Games etc... although I keep my "Personal" setting so that everything I watch has the afforementioned look all the time. Sure if I ever want to feel nostalgic, I can take that setting off when watching a movie, but to me it dosen't "look" the best. But again I guess this is just my opinion.

Back on Topic- I guess I should be glad for the fans that for whatever reason haven't seen this movie in a long time. I'll hold out for the Blu-ray. However should MB close shop before this is released, as I anticipate, then I'll get the standard DVD if/when that time comes. I'm sure it wont be super expensive as people expect. If MB does a total fail and closes Before the proposed release date, well then, I am contect with the 2 Megalon DVD's I already have.

I wonder what's going to happen with DAM. Some of us were lucky and snagged a copy but I assume with the issues Toho had there is a pretty limited amount of supplies left to purchase new.

Keith last mentioned that MB hasn't done any additional presings of DAM, but copies are still readily available on Amazon.com. It should also be noted that none of MB other Toho films had 2nd pressings that i am aware of, and most of them are still reasonably priced despite being released 4-7 years ago

[goji1986]

OT- Forgive my ignorance, but may I ask what you are referring to when you speak of "DNR", I always associated it with "Digital Noise Removal" (Audio), but you seem to be speaking of video aspects, all assistance is appreciated.

Also this is the first I have heard that there seems to be some differing of opinion regarding the "look" of films in Hi-def. I thought the whole point was to have every film, no matter how old, look like it was filmed "today" (the "camcorder" or "before a live studio" look etc...) But I do understand everyone has their own preferrences. I guess that is why HDTV's have different settings for Movies, Sports, TV, Video Games etc... although I keep my "Personal" setting so that everything I watch has the afforementioned look all the time. Sure if I ever want to feel nostalgic, I can take that setting off when watching a movie, but to me it dosen't "look" the best. But again I guess this is just my opinion.

Back on Topic- I guess I should be glad for the fans that for whatever reason haven't seen this movie in a long time. I'll hold out for the Blu-ray. However should MB close shop before this is released, as I anticipate, then I'll get the standard DVD if/when that time comes. I'm sure it wont be super expensive as people expect. If MB does a total fail and closes Before the proposed release date, well then, I am contect with the 2 Megalon DVD's I already have.

I wonder what's going to happen with DAM. Some of us were lucky and snagged a copy but I assume with the issues Toho had there is a pretty limited amount of supplies left to purchase new.

Keith last mentioned that MB hasn't done any additional presings of DAM, but copies are still readily available on Amazon.com. It should also be noted that none of MB other Toho films had 2nd pressings that i am aware of, and most of them are still reasonably priced despite being released 4-7 years ago

Noise, in image terms, essentially means grain. Traditional film has grain. By applying DNR, you're smudging out the grain but losing the detail underneath it because it's actually a part of the image. So this whole practice of trying to make things look like it was shot by a camcorder is in essence defeating the purpose of what the filmmakers intended...it was shot on film, and therefore should look like film.

A movie like Holy Grail has tons of grain. It was just the way it was filmed. But by preserving the grain on the Bluray release there's such an immense amount of detail and clarity on the costumes and sets that it would all be lost if it was taken out and instead you'd have a blurry picture.

[o.supreme]

Thanks goji1986. I've read that many of the Toho Blu-Rays have recieved critisism for this practice. Can someone perhaps link some comparison pics of Toho Blu-Rays vs the Sony R1 DVD's, or perhaps even an standard american dvd movie, and a blu-ray where DNR was applied and may from a critical standpoint have "ruined" the film? I am not a huge movie buff, but I would like to be able to identify this "smudging" effect for myself. I'm probaly watching films with it and not even realizing it. I am not embarrased to have my eyes opened to the truth. In the mid-90's I took a foreign film class in college (in a theater, only film prints were watched, no videos). The teacher explained what "pan and scan" was at the time. After that, I was not able to watch many movies on TV because it bugged me so much, but it was nice to know the truth .

[Tamura]

I don't think Toho applied DNR to their "HD" versions. None of them look smeary, really. It's more like they simply applied a gaussian blur filter over the picture.

[milo bloom]

Thanks goji1986. I've read that many of the Toho Blu-Rays have recieved critisism for this practice. Can someone perhaps link some comparison pics of Toho Blu-Rays vs the Sony R1 DVD's, or perhaps even an standard american dvd movie, and a blu-ray where DNR was applied and may from a critical standpoint have "ruined" the film? I am not a huge movie buff, but I would like to be able to identify this "smudging" effect for myself. I'm probaly watching films with it and not even realizing it. I am not embarrased to have my eyes opened to the truth. In the mid-90's I took a foreign film class in college (in a theater, only film prints were watched, no videos). The teacher explained what "pan and scan" was at the time. After that, I was not able to watch many movies on TV because it bugged me so much, but it was nice to know the truth .

Go to post 18 here for bad DNR on a Bluray

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/blu-ray-bargai ... -99-a.html

Oh, I agree with you 100% on overdone DNR, bananaoil. That's the worst trend to happen to home media since the days of the default pan-and-scan standard.

Why go through all the trouble of giving us a huge increase in res, and then blurring the living shit out of it!? Is the average consumer actually so stupid that they find watching a film that looks to have been smeared with Vaseline preferable to seeing some natural film grain? If they are, it's probably due more to naivete than anything else. They just don't understand what they're trading for that "uniform" look.

Also, I'm pretty pissed to hear about the Forbidden Planet blu-ray. It's one of my favorite films, and I was planning to pick it up in the near future. If it really looks more washed out than the DVD, I guess I'll just keep watching that. God, if ever a film deserved to have every possible detail preserved onscreen, it's that one.

This says Forbidden Planet on Blu looks pretty good. Not sure where you heard about it not being so.
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/43720/forbidden-planet/

[Tamura]

At least it doesn't look like this:

[Goji]

^ Lol.

My bad bananoil. I wasn't trying to insinuate that you didn't know what you were talking about or anything like that (Clearly, you do). I was actually thinking about picking the BD release of BIG TROUBLE if it looked good, but from the sound of it, watching my DVD-upscaled will suffice.

You guys wanna see a prime example of an absolutely disastrous application of WAY too much DNR? Look at this mess.



This release was especially disappointing to me, because PREDATOR is probably in my top 10 favorite films. I decided to just stick with the old release. Sure, it's not much of an improvement over what a up-scaled version of the DVD would look like, but it's better than that crap.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Also, I'm pretty pissed to hear about the Forbidden Planet blu-ray. It's one of my favorite films, and I was planning to pick it up in the near future. If it really looks more washed out than the DVD, I guess I'll just keep watching that. God, if ever a film deserved to have every possible detail preserved onscreen, it's that one.

This says Forbidden Planet on Blu looks pretty good. Not sure where you heard about it not being so.
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/43720/forbidden-planet/

bananoil spoke of his displeasure with the Blu-ray release on the previous page.

[bananaoil]

Eh, I'm not an expert. Maybe Blu-Ray releases of older films will win me over, yet.

On Topic, when Media Blasters finally releases the barebones Megalon, I wonder if enough people will even buy it for them to recoup money and justify their super duper version? The first release is the only version I plan to own. I'm not knocking special features in general, but as a hobby, researching every detail of every film I can has lost its luster. My inner critic bores me.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

A best-case scenario might be for them to not quite make their money back, but have enough sales for them to know people are interested, and possibly lead them to believe that an SE release would be the best way to put them into profit territory.

[Proofpoochie]

The recent Star Wars Phantom Menace Blu-ray is another example of how digital manipulation makes a film look awful. It's riddled with DNR.

[Goji]

^ I heard about that. I'll definitely be holding onto the DVD (I've only ever watched in a couple of times to begin with). Hell, the only thing in that set (The one that includes all 6 movies with special features) I even care about are the deleted scenes from the original trilogy, but that's not worth the price of admission. I'm not interested in the Special Edition 3.0, because that's literally what it is.

End rant/ derailment.

[Proofpoochie]

^The Rocky Horror Picture Show Blu-ray is one of the best examples of how stunning a film can look on Blu with a restoration and no digital manipulation.

[SG-17]

As hilariously wrong as watsy is, there's breaking news.

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2012 ... s-megalon/

August 14 is the new release date.

August 14th?... At least it has a higher chance of being released now.

[Sydney Aradi]

August 14th huh? Well I know what I'll be getting on that day

[omgitsgodzilla]

skreeonk hell. What would be stopping them from releasing a bare-bones disc earlier? They have the material. They've got the packaging and I would assume a menu design. The only thing I can think of taking that long is manufacturing the discs and getting them to retailers, but even that seems like a wee bit of a stretch to me.